Radio Free Montone: Subway World Series
By John Montone, 1010 WINS
New York is home to two mediocre major league baseball teams which means the Yankees and Mets could meet in the World Series.
Back in the pre-historic or at least pre-cable era when I was a kid, the Bronx Bombers would win the American League pennant every year with around 100 victories and the Mets would finish tenth, 40-games behind the Dodgers or Cardinals. Ten teams in each league. Two first place teams. And the Fall Classic was in the books by say, October 10th.
In 1969 Major League Baseball expanded and split the American and National Leagues into two divisions, East and West. The division winners played in a five game series with the winners going on to the World Series which usually wrapped up by mid-October. Many years later the League Championship Series was expanded to seven games and the World Series ran into the third week of October.
MLB introduced the Wild Card in 1995 and each league was split into three divisions. All three division winners and a wild card team in each league made the post-season which consisted of the Division Series, the League Championship Series and finally the World Series which ran through the end of October and sometimes into November. Wild card teams often won fewer than 90-games.
Two more wild card teams were added in 2012. The expanded post-season now includes the Wild Card games, the division series, the championship series and finally the World Series which never ends before the NFL-s mid-season mark. Baseball number crunchers say the extra wild cards mean that teams hanging around the .500 level in early September are legitimate contenders.
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Which brings us to the Yankees and Mets. The Yanks feature an all-star cast. Problem is they were all-stars a decade ago. A-Rod, Teixeira, Sabathia and Beltran look like the guys who amble out of the dugout on Old Timers' Day. The Mets are younger, but they've been put together on the cheap. Since the Wilpons lost their Madoff money, they've run their franchise like they were the Toledo Mud Hens.
Las Vegas odds makers put the over/under win total for both teams at 81 ½ which means if they can both scrape together three or four more victories, they might grab that second wild card. The Yankees with Tanaka pitching, if he doesn't get Tommy-Johnned, could beat say the White Sox in the Wild Card game, get by Detroit in the ALDS and beat the Angles in the ALCS. While the Mets with post-Tommy John Matt Harvey on the hill could beat San Francisco in the Wild Card game, breeze through the Cubs in the NLDS and knock off the Nats for the pennant.
Hot dog! Subway World Series in New York. And it should be over by Thanksgiving.
